Paul Kariya gets 400th career goal as Blues dump Rangers, 4-3

APPaul Kariya scored his 400th career goal to help the Blues edge the New York Rangers 4-3 Thursday,By IRA PODELL

Paul Kariya scored his 400th NHL goal to snap a
third-period tie and the St. Louis Blues took advantage of
uncharacteristically shaky Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist and beat New
York 4-3 on Thursday night.

St. Louis scored
four times on its first 14 shots and handed the ninth-place Rangers a
key loss in their pursuit of an Eastern Conference playoff spot. New
York is three points behind Boston with 11 games left.

Just
1:13 after Wade Redden got the Rangers even at 3, Kariya took a feed in
front from T.J. Oshie and scored his milestone goal.

Brad
Boyes and defensemen Mike Weaver and Erik Johnson also scored for the
Blues, 11-44-7 at New York. Weaver's goal was his first in three years,
covering 185 NHL games. Ty Conklin made 26 saves.

Redden's
first in 58 games gave the Rangers brief life that Kariya quickly took
away. Marian Gaborik had a goal and two assists, and Ryan Callahan also
scored for New York, which has lost six of eight (2-4-2).

Lundqvist fought the puck all night. Despite putting only 10 pucks on net, St, Louis carried a 3-2 lead into the third.

Weaver
tied it at 2 at 2:21 of the second after the Rangers failed to clear
the puck out of their zone. Weaver let go a shot from inside the blue
line that eluded Lundqvist. The New York netminder banged his stick and
was still shaking his head side to side when the teams lined up for the
ensuing faceoff.

The defenseman hadn't scored a goal since March 23, 2007.

Lundqvist's
rough game got worse 3:24 later when Johnson sent a seemingly tame shot
from the right wing boards that sneaked in between his pads during a
power play.

New York held the Blues to six shots in the first period and took a 2-1 edge.

St.
Louis got the jump for the second straight game. It wasn't as quick as
Alex Steen's team record-tying goal 8 seconds into Tuesday's home loss
to Colorado, but still fast.

Boyes staked the
Blues to a 1-0 lead 1:10 in. St. Louis won a faceoff in the Rangers end
and dug out the puck in the corner. It came to Boyes in the left circle
and he zipped a shot over Lundqvist's glove for his 13th goal.

That
was an early clue that Lundqvist lacked sharpness. About 8 minutes into
the first, T.J. Oshie rang a shot off the post behind him during 4-on-4
action. Lundqvist also seemed to miss catching a rising shot that
sailed wide in the second.

His best moments
came during a Rangers power play in the first when he faced two
breakaways. B.J. Crombeen was denied before he tripped over Lundqvist's
pad and crashed awkwardly into the boards. Moments later, David Backes
outraced defenseman Michal Rozsival for a loose puck. His backhander
was kept out by the left post.

Olli Jokinen
fired a shot from the center blue line that hit Callahan in front and
caromed in to make it 1-1 at 5:52 of the first. Gaborik pushed the
Rangers ahead with 2:52 left in the period when his shot hit the stick
of defenseman Carlo Colaiacovo and fluttered past Conklin's glove for
his 37th goal.

NOTES: The Rangers had a
5-on-3 power play for 1:17 of the third after consecutive delay-of-game
penalties. ... St. Louis has earned 1,400 points on the road. ... The
Blues are 5-4-2 in their last 11 visits to New York.